SNOP

I’ve been bitching for years about Congress making rules to prevent itself from doing its job. The process started with Marbury vs Madison in 1803, when the Supremes stole the process of amending the constitution and Congress didn’t bother to take it back. The filibuster is another self-made “law” to block action. In the 70s Congress started fencing off parts of the budget so it “couldn’t” touch them, thus eliminating its basic budgeting job.

The secret service rule requiring RAPPELLING SKILLS for a barely not quite flat roof is another self-blocking rule.

Until today, the Dem party insisted that it couldn’t stop nominating Biden. There’s no law at all controlling party choice of nominees. The constitution doesn’t say that only the candidate can remove himself. Today the self-blocking rule mysteriously disappeared, showing that it wasn’t really a rule at all.

These are Standard Non-operating Procedures or SNOPs.

Outside government, normal people don’t make SNOPs. Sometimes we’re unable to do a job, and sometimes we call in sick or screw around, but we never make an official “law” that blocks us. 95% of the time we try, whether we succeed or not.